Jaipur: The trend of sealing MLAs in hotels seems to have trickled down to the local bodies polls in Rajasthan. Recently, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) placed its winning candidates in isolation to ensure that the party wins the mayor’s position.This was done even as the verdict of the Ajmer Municipal Corporation (AMC) elections was in favour of the BJP. Out of Ajmer Nagar Nigam’s 80 seats, the BJP won 48, while the Congress secured only 18 and the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLTP) got one. Independent candidates won 13 seats.The BJP sealed all its winning candidates in an undisclosed location in Jaipur. It is speculated that the candidates will stay there until February 7, which is the day of voting for the nomination of the mayor.The saffron party seems to have taken this approach because, in the recently concluded Zila Pramukh elections, the party wasn’t able to attain the position in Ajmer despite winning 21 of the 30 seats. This was down to cross-voting, and the party is apprehensive that this might happen once again when the mayor is elected.In the case of AMC, the Congress party would need at least 22 votes to reach the half-way mark. If one were to assume that all the independent candidates and the lone RLTP winner support it, that still amounts to just 14 votes. If it is to win, the Congress will have to garner votes from the BJP.Another reason for sealing the winning candidates is the clash between two senior BJP leaders from Ajmer, Vasudev Devnani and Anita Bhadel.“Their relations have turned so sour that they can do anything to not let the preferred candidate of the other to win,” Mahendra Singh Ralawata, a senior Congress functionary in Ajmer told The Wire.However, the BJP puts the blame on the Congress for trying to lure its candidates.“To improve its image in the eyes of the public, the Congress is using dirty tricks to get the mayor position, even where it does not have enough seats,” a BJP leader said on the condition of anonymity.Over the past few years, placing MLAs in hotels and resorts has occurred in many states. This is perhaps the first time that even winning candidates in civic polls have been ‘sealed’.In 2020, both the BJP and the Congress had sealed its MLAs during the political showdown between chief minister Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot.In 2019, the BJP in Karnataka had moved its MLAs to a resort ahead of chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy’s trust vote.A similar case also took place in Nagaland in 2017. Here, rebel MLAs of Nagaland’s ruling Naga People’s Front (NPF) were sealed in a resort during the power struggle between chief minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu and his predecessor T.R. Zeliang.